Wildfires spread across 7,000 hectares in Russian Far East in past 24 hours
KHABAROVSK. June 26 (Interfax) - Forestry services were fighting 59 wildfires in the Russian Far East during the day, as the blaze had spread into more than 7,000 hectares, the Far Eastern Federal District's forestry department said on Monday.
The strongest fires were seen in Yakutia, where approximately 6,400 hectares of forests burned up during the day. Fires were also raging in the Amur and Magadan regions, the Khabarovsk territory, and the Chukchi autonomous region, the report said.
The fires were fought by 595 men using 75 vehicles and five aircraft. As of Monday morning, 15 fires were put out and a number of fires continued to burn, including 26 in Yakutia, 11 in the Amur region, four in the Khabarovsk territory, two in the Chukchi autonomous region, and one in the Magadan region.
The Russian Far East has seen 1,162 forest fires across 260,800 hectares since the beginning of this wildfire season, the forestry department said, adding that most fires were observed in Yakutia, the Jewish autonomous region, and the Amur region. There were 1,003 wildfires across more than 1 million hectares in the relevant period of last year.